Are you maximising the productive potential of your pig herd?

Offering seamless online and offline farm data, both in the field and in the office, the latest case study from one company highlights the benefits of going paperless and of efficiently harvesting the data that you store on your pigs

GoFormz is a mobile app that provides a fast, long-term approach to recording and storing data collected on farm every day. Their most recent case study with Prestage Farms has illustrated the value of digital data collection and storage, and its impact on farm productivity.

Prestage Farms is dedicated to not only stellar customer service but also delivering quality products at competitive prices. For this reason, the Prestage Farms’ team was proactive in their search for a solution to streamline the collection and distribution of information across their many departments and facilities.

Prestage Farms oversees a large number of farms and facilities, ranging from small family growers (who manage the care of Prestage-owned animals) to larger processing facilities. Each of Prestage Farms’ operating locations produce valuable operational data that directly impacts the quality of production, animal care, and facility maintenance provided. Initially, Prestage Farms employees were required to complete their paperwork at farms and facilities on triplicate forms for growers, the service personnel, and also accounting where the representative would hand deliver the forms back to the office.

“It was a lot of paper, it was a lot of writing, it was a lot of gas spent bringing the information back in,” explained Bradley Faircloth, Prestage Information Technology team.

For this reason, the Prestage Farm team began digitally collecting their data using spreadsheets, which would be completed on tablets and routed via email. This initial segue into digital allowed Prestage Farms personnel to experience the ease of electronic data capture… however it offered no opportunities for optimisation and resulted in the isolation of collected data in various inboxes.

It was obvious that this collected data could be used in a much more functional and valuable way.

The case at-a-glance

Challenges

Needed a solution that would allow form users to automate the collection and routing of time-sensitive information and result in more accessible data.

Solutions

Bradley began by digitising Prestage Farms’ maintenance work orders at their Iowa location, in an effort to simplify the communication of service needs between farms and maintenance teams. This allowed for maintenance needs to be reported and addressed instantaneously, rather than waiting for the manual relay of information.

With the success of their maintenance work order workflow, Bradley along with a coworker Matt Hall looked to streamline Prestage Farms’ responsiveness in addressing operational needs and hazards. Servicemen are tasked with visiting farms to ensure specific conditions are met, such as assessing facility conditions and animal wellbeing, and can record every visit in a universal database.

Digitally collected data has simplified the documentation and delivery of service information significantly, allowing for Prestage Farms’ Servicemen to provide critical production insights from remote locations, in a more timely manner. For example, when dealing with animal care, the instant delivery of information is of the utmost importance. Management staff, vets and stockworkers can be alerted immediately if an issue arises on farm.

Mobile forms have also improved Prestage Farms’ training programmes. When training programmes and classes are attended, tablets are circulated to collect participant information and signatures, which are automatically filed.

What’s Next?

Emily Houghton is a Zoology graduate from Cardiff University. Emily has worked in livestock husbandry, and has written, conducted and assisted with research projects regarding the synthesis of welfare and productivity of free-range food species.